The invention is directed generally to a method for representing a file structure on a display unit with the assistance of a tree structure and, more particularly, to a method in which a concatenated file includes a file structure that contains basic information and reference information, the reference information including information that links the concatenated files with source reference files which also are files of the file structure and were are used for generating the concatenated file.
Modern computer programs make it possible for a number of files (source reference files) to be processed into a new file. For example, pictures or other graphic elements or table elements from other files, which may have been generated with the assistance of other programs, can be integrated into a text document. Another example is image post processing in magnetic resonance tomography whereby “derived images” are generated from an arbitrary number of measured anatomic images, for example, by using different algorithms.
It is advantageous for specific applications to know the source reference files of the newly generated file. For example, for the evaluation of magnetic resonance images, it is necessary to know the anatomic images on which the derived images are based or to know that the images are based on already generated derived images. For this purpose, the DICOM medical image standard used in the medical technology defines a “Source Image Sequence” attribute which references all of the source reference images in the generated file of the parameter image.
It is a problem for a computer program to reasonably represent the links with the source reference files within the operator display. This is particularly problematic when a derived image, for example, is based on a large number of source reference files.
A possible solution for this problem, particularly with respect to applications in medical technology, for example, is to use image text which is superimposed onto the image during the visualization of an image. A great number of producers or manufacturers use this traditional course of action in order to display measuring parameters or general bits of information, for example. However, in instances having a large number of relevant source reference images, it becomes clear that the image text is useless since the information must be trimmed or cannot be represented due to a lack of space.
The representation of hierarchical arrangements of data files is shown with the assistance of, e.g., tree structure representations. For example, Microsoft provides the class CtreeCtrl in its class library “Microsoft Foundation Classes” (MFC) in order to visualize tree structures. Microsoft defines this class in the MSDN Library October 2001, for example. A “tree view control” is a window which represents hierarchical lists of entries such as document headlines, index entries or the documents or directories of a hard disk.